Flytrap for use with live stock



J; W'. G IBBONS.

FLYTRAF FOR USE WITH LIVE STOCK.

APPLICATION FILED NOV- 5. I920.

Patented Aug. 22, 1922.

INVENTOR. John W flwom BYQ ATTORNEY rarest caries.

JOHN W. GIBBONS, OF 'MERCED FALLS, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR 0E ONE-HALF TOTIMOTHY CARLON, OF LJLGRANGE, CALIFORNIA.

FLYTRAP FOR USE WITH LIVESTOCK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 29, 1922.

Application filed November 5, 1920. Serial No. 421,857.

To all whomit may concern:

.Be it known that I, JOHN W. GIBBONS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Merced Falls, county of Merced, State of California, havinvented certain new and. useful improvements in Flytraps for Use withLive Stock; and I do declare the following to be a hill, clear, and.exact description of the same, reference being bad to the accompanyingdrawings, and tot-he characters of reference marked thereon, which forma part of this application.

.This invention relates to improvements in traps for flies and otherwinged insects, which traps in their construction take advantage of-thewell known fact that flies and similar insects always seek the light andfly upwardly.

The principal. object of my invention is to provide a flytrap of anenlarged character, built in the form of a shed through which the livestock are intended to pass, theshed being provided with means for disturbing the flies onthe animals and causing; themto fly about andfinally to enter the trap proper, from which there is no escape.

Another object is to provide doors Or openings at each end of the shedwhich will be automatically opened and closed by the passage of theanimal therethrouogh. the shed and doors being opaque and the onlydaylight normally visible being through a narrow slit at. the top of theshed. to which the insectswill instinctively fly to the trap above,instead of out through the doorways, as undoubtedly a good many wouldescape in this manner were the doorways left as permanent openings.

Insects, and particularlyiiies. are a c nstant source of annoyance tolivestock. especially cattle, the pests of course being more prevalentin some localities than in others. In order torelieve themselves, thecattle rub against anything which will tend to brush the pests fromtheir" backs, such as fruit trees, thorny berry vines and the like. Thisnot only resnltsin the animals skin being scratched, tending to causesores, and sometimes in the breaking down of the trees or vines; but therelief gained is at best only very temporary, since the flies are notdestroyed nor evencaught, but merely disturbed forthe time being.

'My device however, will not only disturb the flies, but will catch themajority if not all of them, when they may be destroyed at leisure.

The device is intended to be installed in any suitable location as apermanent piece of equipment, through which the cattle may be driven atstated intervals or whenever the necessity demands. It also highlyprobable, that once the animals discover that their irritating pests areremoved by passing through the shed, they will voluntarily use the samewhen again annoyed, if the trap is placed where the animals may haveeasy access thereto.

These objects ll accomplish by means of such structure and relativearrangement of parts as will fully appear by a perusal of the followingspecification and claims.

In the drawings similar characters ofreference indicatecorrespondingparts in the several views.

l is an end elevation of the device, half in section. r

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section thereof.

' Fig. 3 is a ground plan of the same.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary view of one'end of a movable platformshowing door actuating mechanism connected thereto.

Fig. 5 is a similar view at the other end of the platform, showing acatch means.

Referring now more particularly to the characters of refe en e on thedrawings, the numeral l denotes a shed of sufficient height and width toaccommodate the animal for which it is intended. and having a lengthabout equal to double the length of such animal.

The sides 2 of the shed-are made of boards, sheet iron or other opaquematerial, and preferably slope outwardly from the bottom up. The roof 3is also opaque, and slopes upwardly from the edges to a centrallongitudinal peak, at the apex of which a narrow slit 4 is left, ofsuiiicient width to permit a flyor similar insect to readily passtherethrough. Above the roof and spaced therefrom is a cover or hood 5of wire screening, forming an enclosed area the only normal opening intowhich is through the slit 4. This hood may be removably fastened orhinged to the roof so that it may be raised or removed to clean out theflies, after the latter have been. killed in any desired manner. 7 Frontend doors 6 and rear end doors 7 are side thereof and resting ontheground orv on a suitable foundation are outer beams 9 and inner beams 10spaced from the former and.'ef'considerably lesserlieight than the same,these beams having a downward slope from the fron'tto rear end.

, tween each pair of beams andprojecting above the innermost ones arerollers 11 on which rides a platform 12, which extends over the-innerbeams 10 but terminates inside the outer beams, there being rollersljo'urnaled in the'latter and projecting from the inner faces-thereof tobear against the e'dges'of the platform so that the latter-mayhavegpractically frictionless travel.

' Th is platform does notextend the full length of the shed, but is'sufliciently shorter to permit of a certain and predetermined amount'of' travel. l

On account of the downward slope of thesupportingbeams, the platform ifleft free would naturally move to the lower and rear end ofthe shed. Inorder to normally prevent this however, cables 14- are attached theretoadjacent the forward end, which cables extend over suitabledirecting-pulleys l5'to counter-balancing weights 16.

Tocontrol the movement of the doors 6 by the movement of the platform, arod orbar 17 ,is slidably mounted under the platform at the forward-endin a pair of longitudima spaced sleeves 18. Projecting from the bar i'sapinllfl adapted to bear against either sleeve, this pin, when theplatform is at the upper end of the shed, bearing against therearsleeve. v v

From the outer end of the 1m, 17, links 20 extenduto armsZl extendingparalilelto the doors'fi connected thereto, but preferably iosi-tionedunder the entrance apron or flooring-'22. Y

*Thus it willtheseen that the opening or closing 20f the vv"door isdependenton the movement .of the platform.

door actuating bare prevents the door from being closed .until: theplatform has moved a certain distaiice-froinf the forward; end,: thusalldwingi-the same lllll'lQltO l gain a certain momentum beforethewvorknf closing the door; is! thrown; upon it. This is" necessary,since besides the opening. of the doors: by reason the link and barmechanism,

Journaled be- V 7 At the same t1me, thecsleevetandvpin connection of thesprings 23 are provided to normally hold the doors open, these springsbeing, pref' end of the shed is a spring catch 24: arranged to engagealug 25'pro ect1ng fro,m,the.;s de

of the platform at its lower end, so as to hold the latter Jatthe rearend of the shed, its tendency being to move to the front end on accountofthe pullofthe weights-16.

Beyond the shed at its rear end parallel fences 26 on each; side of thedoors 7 enclose a passageway27 across which is a spring swing gate 28,normally closed, and opening away from the shed, being pivoted or hingedto that fence on the side of the shed on which is the latch 2 L A shortarm 29 projects-from the'p-ivotalconnection of the gate,ifrom' whichawwire or other connection 30 extendstoacatch the animal-, the-stemsorshanks'35 of these brushes being of a. flexible and'iv spring.construction, so that if the animal should step on one of the same, it.wil] immediately springback to .its normal position when the pressureis removed.

lnxoperation, thelplatform :12tis at the forward end O'fllShG shed, thedoors Glare open and the. doors'7 closed.

' l 'l' hen the platform is. in thisipositio n and unoccupied, theforward end rests; on 'theinnerbeams 10 and not on the rollers, sincethe first ofthe latter are purposelypostx tioned a short distance; backof the center of length of the platform so that thezlatter tiltsforward, resting moreifirmlyand -making a moresecur'e lfeeling.structurmthan could otherwiselie-obtained. 1

The animal then .enters the shed -,and stands .on-the platform. Assoon:as. thisisdone,: the additional weight causes-theep'lat form to move'toward therearend, the doors 6 being closed almost instantly. =-At-thesame time, the curtains and brushes sweep I cause the animal to continueits forward movement, which will immediately start the opening of thedoors 7.

Seeing daylight therethrough, the animal will push open the doors andwalk from the shed into the passageway 27. To reach freedom, the gate 28must be passed, the opening of which releases the catch 2 and allows theplatform to move to the front end of the shed, the doors 6 being againopened by this movement, and the device is then ready for the admissionof another animal.

It is possible that until trained, the animals will have to be driventhrough the shed, but I believe that as soon as their instinct tellsthem that no harm but benefit comes to them, they will voluntarily usethe device as a fly remover whenever they are irritated by the pests.

From the foregoing description it will be readily seen that I haveproduced such a device as substantially fulfills the objects of theinvention as set forth herein.

While this specification sets forth in detail the present and preferredconstruction of the device, still in practice such deviations from suchdetail may be resorted to and do not form a departure from the spirit ofthe invention, as defined by the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and useful anddesire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A fly trap for live stock comprising a shed through which the stockpasses, a flytrapping enclosure on top of the shed arranged to receivethe flies from the shed therein, doors at the entrance end of the shednormally open to allow the stock to pass into the shed, a platform inthe shed onto which the animal steps and arranged to move automaticallyfrom the entrance to the exit end of the shed with the weight of theanimal thereon, and means actuated by the movement of the platform forautomatically closing said doors.

2. A fly trap for live stock comprising a shed through which the stockpasses, a flytrapping enclosure on top of the shed ar ranged to receivethe flies from the shed therein, doors at the entrance end of the shednormally open to allow the stock to pass into the shed, a platform inthe shed onto which the animal steps and arranged to move automaticallyfrom the entrance to the exit end of the shed with the weight of theanimal thereon, and means actuated by the movement of the platform forautomatically closing said doors and means whereby the platform willmove to the entrance end of the shed and the doors will be reopenedafter the animal has left the shed.

3. A fiy trap for live stock comprising a shed through which the stockpasses, a flytrapping enclosure on top of the shed arranged to receivethe flies from the shed therein, doors at the entrance end of the shednormally open to allow the stock to pass into the shed, a platform inthe shed onto which the naima], steps, a runway sloping down to the exitend of the shed and onv which the platform rides, counterbalance meansfor normally keeping the platform at the entrance end of the shed, theweight of the animal on the platform overcoming the counterbalance andcausing the platform to move to the lower and exit end of the shed, andmeans for holding the platform at the lower end until after the animalhas emerged from the shed.

4:. A fly trap for live stock comprising a shed through which the stockpasses, a flytrapping enclosure on top of the shed arranged to receivethe flies from the shed therein, doors at the entrance end of the shednormally open to allow the stock to pass into the shed, a platform inthe shed onto which the animal steps, a runway sloping down to the exitend of the shed and on which the platform rides, counterbalance meansfor normally keeping the platform at the entrance end of the shed, theweight of the animal on the platform overcoming the counterbalance andcausing the platform to move to the lower and exit end of the shed,means for holding the platform at the lower and exit end of the shed,and means actuated by the animal after emerging from the shed forreleasing such holding means, whereby the platform will automaticallyreturn to the upper and entrance end of the shed.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

JOHN W. GIBBONS.

